Tag: Japan - Page 73
News Unreal Famicom Games are... Well, Unreal
Famicase project shows off 2010 line-up
The humble Famicom cartridge may not seem like the perfect canvas on which to create art, but every year Japanese game shop Meter hosts Famicase, a project aiming to prove just the opposite. Artists are asked to create artwork for a fictitious game and display it on a Famicom cart, and predictably the results...
News Japan to Cool Off with Mario and Animal Crossing Fans
Club Nintendo Japan gets all the cool stuff - literally
While the rest of the world can satisfy itself with tiny cards and Wii Remote baskets, Japan just got an item to once again pique the rest of the world's envy – Mario and Animal Crossing themed handheld fans for 150 coins a pop at their local Club Nintendo. This is especially distressing news...
News Only 8.8% of Japanese Consumers Want to Buy a 3DS
The next Virtual Boy?
Though Nintendo hasn't released much information on the system itself, a recent survey of 1,059 consumers by Japanese goo Research shows that only 8.8% want to buy Nintendo's next handheld, while 55.8% are interested in it and 35.3% don't want it at all. Perhaps once the system is debuted at this year's E3 as anticipated,...
News Nintendo's Room Migration Kit Makes it Even Easier to Move a Wii
Free yourself from the hassle of carrying cables
Although the Wii is meant to be a great living room experience for all the family, sometimes you just want to smuggle it away to a shady corner and indulge in some private gaming time. The only downside is unplugging all the myriad cables and setting it up again though, right? Here comes Nintendo with...
News Google Teams Up with Nintendo to Release Search Engine-Based Game
The world furrows its collective brow
Google is the type of company that makes people feel like their best friends are in charge. They even joke around with their users, playing a creative April Fool's joke on them annually. Lately, though, it seems that Google's gone a little screwy (Buzz, anyone?). And their big April Fool's prank this year was to...
News It's Tough at the Top for Nintendo
Japanese newspaper reveals the strain of being number one
Nintendo's consoles are massive sellers and the company is arguably more successful now than it has ever been, but at what cost? Japanese newspaper Nikkei Sangyou Shimbun has given a brief insight into the strain of being the best of the best. Apparently Nintendo's employees have been under...
News Nintendo's 3DS Announcement Wasn't Supposed to Happen Like That
Analyst: early reveal was meant to prevent further leaks
When a company announces new hardware, especially the successor to a massively popular one, it's usually done with much more pomp than what happened with Nintendo's recent 3DS announcement. The fanfare of the two-sentence press release was only slightly less than if Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata...
First Impressions Pinball Attack!
Pinball and shooters: two tastes that go great together
ArtePiazza is better recognised for its work on RPGs like Enix's Dragon Quest series and more recently Koei's Wii RPG Opoona, so it's interesting that their freshman effort on DSiWare is a marriage of video pinball and shooter called Pinball Attack! There are currently no other pinball games on...
News Final Fantasy Creator Working on Last Story for Wii
Nintendo trademark is for a new Mistwalker RPG
Remember that mystifying trademark that Nintendo registered a while back? Turns out it's not the subtitle of the next Mario adventure (as we half-jokingly predicted) but an RPG from the creator of Final Fantasy, Hironobu Sakaguchi. Nintendo has confirmed the launch of a new Web site dedicated to the...
News Japan to Get Wii Budget Range
Rest of the world left waiting
Nintendo of Japan have finally introduced the "Minna no Osusume Collection" (or, for us English-speaking folk, the "Everyone's Recommendation Collection"), a range of re-released Wii titles to combat the 360 Classics and PS3 Platinum range. Titles with high user rankings from the Japanese Nintendo...
News Two More WiiWare Demos for Lucky Japan
Phoenix Wright and Pokémon for Japanese Wiis
It appears that Nintendo are continuing to back the new WiiWare demo service, as they have added two new titles: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Aim! Light Adventure Team and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Although different in nature, both titles offer a massive amount of entertainment, whether it be rescuing...
Japanese researchers recreate Mario in a petri dish.
Evidentally, Japanese science folk at nanobiological laboratories of the University of Osaka got bored whilst solving real problems and decided to do something significantly more light-hearted to cheer us all up. Here we present Fungus Mario in all his fluorescent glory! Those Osaka University...
News Nintendo to Introduce New Touch Screen Kiosks in Japan
Ignorance no longer an excuse when buying games
Nintendo has revealed new kiosks for display in major retail outlets in Japan. They come in two flavours: flat screen devices for counters and retail kiosks for floor display. Both come with wonderfully hi-tech touch screens and cameras. Customers will be able to pick up any DS or Wii game and flash...
News Just What Is The Nintendo Zii?
A new trademark registered in Japan is fuelling speculation on the internet
Silicon Era has reported that a new trademark registration has appeared in the Japanese trademark database for the word "Zii." Nintendo submitted the application on the 30th of October, though there's no indication of what it's for. It could be trying to block the...
News Sunsoft To Release Telenet Titles On Virtual Console
Resurgent publisher confirms acquisition of defunct company's catalogue
If the recent news of Sunsoft's glorious return to the west has whipped you into a frenzy then you might want to take a deep breath before reading the press release below. The company has confirmed that it has bought up the rights to Nihon Telenet's software library. While...
News WiiWare Phoenix Wright Makes Most Of Wii Remote
Shouting "Objection" never felt so natural
While some might be grumbling about the fact that the upcoming WiiWare editions of Capcom's Phoenix Wright series are little more than straight ports of the DS/GBA originals, one element is likely to bring a smile to the face of pretty much every fan. As this zany Japanese TV commercial illustrates, it's...
News Nintendo Cutting Back On Wii Production?
Has the machine reached its zenith?
The Nintendo Wii may have sold a shed-load of units over the past few weeks but reports from Japan indicate that even this increase in revenue is unlikely to completely turnaround the machine's flagging fortunes. A report issued by Japanese news firm Nikkei has revealed that two Japanese companies involved with...
News DSi LL Shifts 100K Units In Japan
Two-day launch sales beat the competition
No matter how much head-scratching came out of the arguably non-portable portable's announcement, we've now learned one thing: it sells. According to Famitsu and sales tracker Enterbrain, the giant handheld sold 103,524 units in two days. While an impressive number, it's still not too surprising given the...
News New Super Mario Bros. Wii Gets Perfect Score in Famitsu
Japanese magazine gives Mario's latest top marks
Print media might be suffering at the moment but that hasn't stopped Japanese magazine Famitsu's influence in the industry. The veteran publication is still seen as something of an authority - both in its native homeland and the West - so the news that it has awarded New Super Mario Bros. Wii a...
News Japanese Club Nintendo Members Get Game & Watch Goodness
Retro-themed freebies = WIN
Western Nintendo fans are used to getting rubbish gifts from Club Nintendo while their Japanese cousins take home some seriously amazing kit, but this latest news is especially depressing for anyone outside the Land of the Rising Sun. Nintendo of Japan is offering actual Game & Watch "Ball" units to Platinum...
News DS XL Promo Footage Shows Off Generous Proportions, Family-friendly Nature
Fun for the entire family
The DS XL - known as the DS LL in Japan - is something of a monster. Want proof? Check out this official promotional video, which has been released by Nintendo to advertise the impending Japanese launch of the console. The footage shows an almost unbearably happy Japanese family fawning over their new DS LL, and gives a...
News Club Nintendo Japan Adds WiiWare Game Ultrahand
Cook from afar for 50 points
Club Nintendo Japan yesterday reminded the other Club Nintendos around the world just how much better it was by adding the first all-member game download to its service. Take that, Mario Party playing cards! Ultrahand is a bit of an oddity and centers around using the titular object to grab meat off a grill; at 50 Club...
News Nintendo Announces Wii Line-Up For THE WORLD
North America, Europe and Japan get tentative release schedules
In case you were wondering about a release window for Metroid: Other M or any other Nintendo-published title, lo and behold, we have a list. Read with your eyes (or voice software) and mark your calendar with your hand (or voice software). Hey look, Japan is getting a Kirby game. North...
News First Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth Screens Appear
Latest issue of Famitsu provides a closer look at the highly-anticipated dose of retro goodness.
Japanese gaming publication Famitsu has provided the world with a first look at Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth. The screens show the typical Gothic look we've come to love and expect from Konami's vintage series. The game appears to follow the...
News Nintendo Shows Off Its History at Kyoto Cross Media Event
Lots of cool retro gear on display
This weekend the Kyoto Cross Media Experience 2009 took place in - you guessed it - Kyoto, Japan. Nintendo was in attendance and had plenty of goodies for avid gamers to ogle at. As well as showing off new games for the Wii and DS, the video game veteran had a massive display which illustrated the company's long...
News If the PS3 is an F1 Car, the Wii is a Go-Kart
Japanese TV show compares the current consoles to four-wheeled vehicles for no good reason
Wii owners are used to being told by their PS3 and 360-owning buddies that their console is underpowered, but such insults usually backfire thanks to the fact that Sony and Microsoft's machines don't have anything as awesome as Super Mario Galaxy. It also...
News Japanese Monster Hunter 3 Sales Slump
Is Capcom's mega-hit running out of steam?
The Monster Hunter series is massive in Japan. Stupidly massive. The Japanese simply cannot seem to get enough of it...or so we thought. Latest reports from the Land of the Rising Sun appear to indicate that Monster Hunter 3 - which saw release earlier this month - has stalled at retail. The game sold a...
News Dragon Quest IX: 3.5 Million Served
RPG is selling like hot cakes in Japan
Saying that Dragon Quest is popular in Japan is like saying that Americans are rather partial to hamburgers or that Brits like to indulge in a hot cup of tea every now and then. Since going on sale July 14th, Dragon Quest IX - the latest entry in the long-running franchise - has shifted an incredible 3.39...
News Capcom Ships 1 Million Copies of Monster Hunter 3
High demand wagered for Saturday's Japan release.
Monster Hunter 3 Tri isn't even out yet, but Capcom is already bracing itself for massive sales figures. So massive, they've already shipped 1 million copies of the game in Japan According to the publisher, that's the highest pre-release shipment for a third-party Wii game in Japan. Considering the...
News Wii Sports Resort Goes Big In Japan
360,000 copies sold in first week
The sequel to Nintendo's astonishingly successful Wii Sports has smashed its way to the top of the Japanese sales charts, according to figures released by Media Create. Wii Sports Resort sold a whopping 360,000 copies in its first week on sale. According to Japanese magazine Famitsu, 353,000 of that figure were...
News Marvelous Sad Over Poor Sales
Overseas price cuts hitting Japanese publisher hard; company "feels like crying."
Fact: The world economy is in dire straits. Do you have any money? I don't have any money. Marvelous Entertainment, publishers of the upcoming Little King's Story and Muramasa: The Demon Blade as well as the Harvest Moon series, No More Heroes and Rune Factory...
News Japan Gets Wii Movie Rental Service
Stream Tom Cruise into your living room.
Video services are breaking through on consoles in the West: Netflix is up and running on Xbox 360 in the US, with SkyTV coming soon for the UK, and Sony has their own iTunes-like video store. Nintendo? Not so much over here, but in the company's homeland it's a totally different story. In addition to the...
Feature Tending and Feeding Your Japanese Wii
If you're considering getting a Japanese Wii, here's some tips and suggestions on getting the most out of it.
Ever since the Japanese took over the home video game console market in the mid-80s there's been a major gulf between game releases in the consoles' country of origin and nations importing them, either because Japanese publishers lacked...
News Doki Majo Plus Set To Interfere With Little Girls
Avert your eyes - SNK Playmore's worrying sequel gets the trailer treatment.
Doki Doki Majo Shinpan is a DS title produced by SNK Playmore that revolves around touching little girls in order to see if they're witches. Unsurprisingly, it failed to get a western release. However, the Japanese absolutely lapped it up and a sequel is now inbound...
News Monster Hunter 3 Gets A Black Bundle In Japan
Capcom and Nintendo sure do like money.
There's no doubt that the newfangled black Wii will light up the charts when it hits Japan. And it wouldn't be much of a stretch to predict that Monster Hunter 3 will print money, too. Capcom's planned bundle must surely be some kind of impending supernova then, because this much star power is sure to light up...
News Pokémon Heart Gold/Soul Silver "PokeWalker" unveiled
Pedometer accessory to ship with copies of upcoming Pokémon DS games in Japan.
Today's episode of the Japanese Pokémon Sunday officially revealed the "PokeWalker", a pedometer-like accessory that will come bundled with copies of the upcoming Pokémon remakes, Pokémon Heart Gold and Soul Silver The Poke Ball-shaped device allows you to...
Competition Club Nintendo Japan offers limited edition Wii Sports Resort controller pack
Faithful Japanese customers rewarded with exclusive sky-coloured controller collection.
Hot off the heels of Nintendo's announcement concerning the stylish new black Wii and red DSi designs, Japanese Wii owners will soon have another chance to snag some colourful new swag. Customers who register their Wii Sports Resort game through the Club Nintendo...
News New Console Colours to Hit Japan
Finally, the white Wii's monopoly is over!
When the Wii was first revealed all those years ago, Nintendo showed off a wide range of colours you'd be able to buy the machine in, ranging from fire red to vomit green. Sadly when it came to launch only the white console was available, but Nintendo Japan are finally ready to deliver on some of that early...
News Square Enix Confirms Dragon Quest Wars For DSiWare
More top-notch RPG action coming to the DSi
Famitsu magazine has revealed that Square Enix is to release Dragon Quest Wars on the Japanese DSiWare service some time in June. The game appears to be a mixture of turn-based strategy and a traditional board game. Both local and online multiplayer modes are expected to feature. Development duties are...
News Monster Hunter 3 (Tri) Gets Japanese Release Date
Capcom finally comes clean with a launch window
Capcom has confirmed that its long-awaited Monster Hunter 3 (Tri) will be launched in Japan on the 1st of August. A limited edition bundle will be available for collectors to wet themselves over. Capcom has confirmed that a Western release is happening, but given the late arrival of the Japanese...
News Infinite Space Gameplay Trailer
Sega shows off some battle footage from its upcoming space-sim/RPG.
Just weeks away from release in Japan, Sega has finally released some combat footage from the upcoming DS space opera Infinite Space (known as Infinite Line in Japan). The top screen displays the action via a cinematic battle camera, with the touch screen used to give commands and...
News Fan-made Mother 3 Guide is All Kinds of Awesome
The English guide for the English version that never was
Nintendo's Mother series might not be all that well known here in the West, but the name Earthbound certainly is. You see, Earthbound is actually the English-language version of the Japanese Super Famicom game Mother 2: Gyiyg no Gyakushū. Its sequel - which took 11 years to produce and was...
News Pokémon Gold and Silver To Be Remade?
A recent episode of the Japanese-only Pokémon Sunday TV show has provided the biggest hint yet that Nintendo is currently working on remakes of Pokémon Gold and Silver. The classic duo originally appeared on the Game Boy Color and remain two of the best-loved entries in the insanely successful series. Apparently a "world-exclusive first...
News Monster Hunter G Gives Wii a Sales Boost In Japan
But it's still not enough to catch the 'reborn' PS3
Capcom's Monster Hunter G has given Wii a much-needed kick up the arse in Japan, where the console is currently being outsold by Sony's resurgent PS3. Sony's machine has been enjoying a rare period of sales supremacy thanks largely to killer titles such as Resident Evil 5, Yakuza 3 and - although...
News Hollow Victory for Nintendo as Latest Pokémon Title Tops Japanese Charts
Oh noes! Mystery Dungeon sales down!
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Sky (AKA: Pokémon Fushigi no Dungeon: Sora no Tankentai) was recently released in Japan and promptly sold 141,000 copies, which equates to around a 30% sell-through. This retail performance was enough to place it at the top of the Japanese multi format games chart...
News Game Center CX Looks at the Virtual Console
Is Arino up to the challenge?
If you don't already know what Game Center CX is well, I'll tell you: a Japanese T.V. show which started out being about Japanese arcades and retro games, with a "challenge" featuring Shinya Arino, a Japanese comedian with meagre gaming skills. The series has had its own DS game (released in the west as Retro...
News The Wii is in 8 Million Japanese Homes
The Japanese simply cannot get enough of this machine
According to Japanese magazine Famistu, the Nintendo Wii crossed the '8 million sold' mark in Japan on April 19th. Enterbrain has also released the top five selling Wii games in Japan (it's worth pointing out that Wii Sports was not bundled with the console): 1. Wii SportsLaunch:...
News No Fatal Frame IV for North America
Tecmo's survival-horror title denied a stateside release by Nintendo.
Wii-exclusive survival-horror title Fatal Frame IV: Mask Of The Lunar Eclipse has been out in Japan since late July. Co-developed by Tecmo (Ninja Gaiden, Dead Or Alive) and Grasshopper Manufacture (Killer7, Contact, No More Heroes) and published by Nintendo, many assumed a...
News PS3 Outsells the Wii in Japan
But is Nintendo concerned?
The answer is "not particularly." Nintendo responded to Sony's Playstation 3 outselling the Wii by just under 50,000 units in Japan in March by saying "it is still the first few months of the year when sales are slow for the industry" and that the plan of action is "to line up strong software to...
News A DSi You Cannot Object To
Capcom and Nintendo team up to bring a special edition Ace Attorney DSi to Japan.
Fans of the Ace Attorney series will probably go wild at the prospect of owning the recently announced limited edition DSi that features the emblem of the game's police force, Taihokun. Over the years the series has been going from strength to strength, and now has 4...
